'My culture is not a Halloween costume!'

During Halloween, the holiday where dressing up as an "other" is the tradition, Long Beach youth Christian Muro recognized feelings he hadn't noticed during past years. But his feeling of being insulted was validated when he found that peoples' heritage being trivialized as a laughable stereotype was a real phenomenon, and it had a name. He examined the concept of cultural appropriation - when a dominant culture exploits a different culture - and how it manifests in everything from sports, to entertainment, to national holidays. "I would really like to know, when did Party City decide Día de los Muertos, the sacred Mexican holiday for celebrating the life of deceased relatives and friends, was a great concept for a costume?" Read the story and analysis on Voicewaves.